Baylor College Medical School

104. Nationalism in Africa and the Middle East

104. Europe ruled over most of Africa during the early 1900s. Improved farming methods meant more exports; this mostly benefited colonial rulers. Europeans kept the best lands, and African farmers were forced to grow cash crops instead of food. They also were forced to work in mines and then pay taxes to the colonial governments. Many Africans began criticizing imperial rule, but their freedoms only eroded further. An example was the system of apartheid in South Africa. Under this policy, black Africans were denied many of their previous rights, such as the right to vote.

During the 1920s, the Pan-Africanism movement called for the unity of Africans and people of African descent around the world. During the first Pan-African Congress, delegates asked world leaders at the Paris Peace Conference to approve a charter of rights for Africans. Their request was ignored. The members of the negritude movement in West Africa and the Caribbean protested colonial rule while expressing pride in African culture. These movements, however, brought about little real change.

In Asia Minor, Mustafa Kemal ovethrew the Ottoman ruler and established the republic of Turkey. Also referred to as Ataturk (father of the Turks), his government promoted industrial expansion by building factories and railroads. Inspired by Ataturk's successes, Reza Khan overthrew the shah of Persia. Khan sought to turn Persia into a modern country. He, too, built factories and railroads. Khan also demanded a bigger portion of profits for Persia from British-controlled oil companies. Both leaders pushed aside Islamic traditions, replacing them with Western alternatives.

Pan-Arabism was a movement based on a shared history of Arabs living from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa. Leaders of Arab nations and territories had hoped to gain independence after World War I, but felt betryaed when France and Britain were given control over their lands. In Palestine, Arab nationalists faced Zionists, or Jewish nationalists. To win the support of European Jews, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration. IN IT, THE BRITISH ADVOCATED FOR A "NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE' IN PALESTINE. Arabs felt the declaration favored the Jews. As a result, an ongoing conflict developed in the Middle East.